The Abyss + Bogeyman GLOG Class

I really like Pact. It's a great novel, and possibly my favourite piece of urban fantasy I know. So far, I was inspired by Pact. Today, I steal outright. The below is based almost entirely on the novel, with changes made only to fill in the gaps where explanations in the source material are unclear, or to make it more usable at the table.

The Abyss

There are two places where forgotten things go. One is the Tunnels of Mist where things that softly lost their grip on reality dissolve gently into the gray. The Abyss is the other. It's a strong contender for the worst place you could ever end up in. Whereas the Tunnels dissolve, the Abyss grinds down. It is cruel, malicious. It has a form, and that form is specifically design to chip away at you. Things and people only end up in the Abyss when they are cut away from the world too quickly and violently for any other half-reality or afterlife to lay claim to them. Temples razed, people shunned and murdered, secluded villages utterly destroyed by natural disasters, all slip through the cracks and find their way here.

The Land

There are many "sections" of the Abyss, resembling places from mainline reality. There are common features, however. Everything is always stagnant or decaying. Buildings are dilapidated, vegetation is dying and grey. It's always uncomfortable, dirty, uneven, either too hot or too cold. Any comfort or beauty is an illusion or a trap. If there's light, there's just enough of it to accentuate the shadows. Some possible sections include, a stagnant swamp, a dying forest, an abnormally large sewer system, infinite, vertical housing block, nightmare version of any place you can think of.

The People

They're either miserable, or on their way to becoming monsters. Unlucky people of all kinds end up here accidentally, from time to time. Most are trying to scrape by, and the Abyss lets them. It doesn't want to kill you, it wants to reduce you. Down there, cold, hunger, sleep deprivation, and other bodily needs are constant companions. They don't have to be. Their satisfaction is hard, but there's another way. You're not constrained here like you would be in the real world. You can just stop being hungry, or cold, surrender that part of yourself. Give it up. Most give up some of their needs, but few go all the way. Doing so means giving the Abyss a way in and is the first step to becoming a monster. You also decrease your chance of ever getting out, but few still think about that longer than their first few days.

The Abyss grinds against the people trapped wtihin constantly. Survival is a struggle. Everything hurts. They receive visions of truths, or fragments of truths, they'd rather not learn. No one can bear the burden indefinitely. Eventually they all forfeit their humanity and become something like animals, or lose their minds.

The Monsters

If you're willing to become a part of the Abyss, to hunt and kill, to sharpen your instincts and dull your conscience, the Abyss will indulge you. You will receive fangs and claws, wings and fins. Like most, you will probably start by eating inhuman creatures or ones that have already lost their minds. You'll set boundaries. They won't last. You won't necessarily stop thinking, but your mind will almost definitely change to fit your new form. You also won't ever leave. Why would you, after you spent so much effort making yourself comfortable? Unless, of course, someone from mainline reality summons you, to serve them and even then, you'll be back soon after.

The Way Out

You can leave, if you try hard enough. It will hurt, even by the standards of the Abyss. You'll need to find a place where the Abyss connects to the real world. Such places are rarely pleasant. Expect basements of dark magicians and ruins slathered with demon innards. The Abyss, being a vast and malicious intelligence with no concept of literary merit, will also force you to undertake the most cliche of trials and confront your 'inner demons' or whatever you want to call the trauma haunting you and the convenient lies you've told yourself. You will, of course, also need to make a deal with it. Everything has a price and the Abyss won't let you out without paying. You'll be a Bogeyman, a scarred soul in a temporary effigy of a body, carrying the Abyss with you wherever you go.

Bogeyman GLOG Class

You were a part of the world once, but you slipped through the cracks. Maybe you fell victim to something that destroys more fully than killing, maybe you were lost and forgotten brutally and rapidly. Either way, you found yourself in the Abyss. You fought, you scraped, and you struggled, until you clawed your way back to reality. Your body here is an effigy keeping your soul in place. The people you knew before don't remember you. All that remains is a you-shaped hole in their memories. The Abyss, of course, has a hold on you.

A: Effigy Body, Abyssal Nature

B: Designated Monster, Way Home

C: Spirit Patchwork

D: Malleable Form

Effigy Body - Your original body is mostly gone. You left it behind in the Abyss, so that the important parts could escape. You still have your face, eyes, heart and spine. The rest of your body here is a disposable effigy. Roll twice on the table below to find out what your vessel is made of.

Dry Branches
Ash
Oak
Glass
Paper
Bones
Granite
Limestone
Brick
Copper
Tin
Steel
Bronze
Canvas
Silk
Burlap
Flesh
Leather
Wine
Fish

You can assume the harder or heavier material makes up your core and serves the function of bone. Your composite materials may give you advantages of weaknesses, like walking silently, or being vulnerable to fire. You can heal HP damage by patching up the cavities with any of your composite materials and waiting 10 minutes for your body to repurpose them.. Fixing more serious injuries requires access to both materials and at least an hour spent on repair, possibly much longer in case of extensive or numerous injuries.

Your body is roughly humanoid in shape. With baggy clothing, in poor light, you could possibly pass for a human.

Abyssal Nature - You belong to the Abyss and it won't let you forget it. Even when disguised as a human others will be disturbed by your presence. Take -2 to any reaction rolls, unless being scary would help.

As a Bogeyman, you are a monster in the eyes of the universe. Things will go your way if you act like it. Whenever you: declare someone your target before killing them; kill someone in an impractical but terrifying way; betray your presence when sneaking up on someone to spook them, let someone live to tell the tale, or do anything else suitably slasher-villain-like, you gain a Karma Die, or KD. You can hold as many KD as your number of templates in Bogeyman. KD can be spent to add d6 to any roll you make. You can, and probably should, use KD on actions that can earn you more KD. The universe is fickle and karma is transient, any KD you don't use will disappear when you take an extended break or act in a way that makes you seem laughable or non-threatening.

You can no longer die. If your body is destroyed, you will find yourself back in the Abyss. You can find a way out in 2d6 days, or when someone in the real world makes an effigy in your shape, destroys an object of value, and says your name three times. Every time you're forced back to the Abyss, you lose a fragment of your original self. Roll on the table below, or choose the most appropriate sacrifice to the Abyss.

Face - no longer able to pretend to be human, even when you wear a mask, your voice sounds obviously monstrous.
Spine - no longer able to make instinctive moral judgements, even if you intellectually know what is considered right or wrong
Eyes - no longer able to instantly see things humans take for granted. Recognizing faces, identifying lies, remembering how writing works and perceiving beauty, all become a struggle.
Heart - no longer able to feel affection or build and maintain social connections. If you had a deep bond with someone before, your sense of commitment might remain, even if you don't feel anything towards them anymore.

These changes do not disfigure you physically. The Abyss provides replacements, ugly and alien though they may be. Once you're out of things to give, you become a full-time monster commanded by the Abyss and cease being a PC.

Designated Monster - You're learning to exploit the little advantages the universe gives you when you play your role. When first encountering an intelligent being or a group, you can force them to make a morale check if you kill or destroy someone or something significant, with the number of KD currently held by you as a penalty.

Way Home - If you really need to, you can open a portal into the Abyss, by drawing a circle and destroying an object of value inside it. You do not control which section of the Abyss you enter. Once inside, you can open a portal back to the real world at will. You can use this ability to bypass physical obstacles in mainline reality, but the Abyss will do its best to hinder your progress. If you bring any non-Bogeymen with you, they will be constantly in danger, and if you're not careful, they might become trapped here for good. A brief visit like this doesn't require a greater sacrifice from you. The Abyss will be satisfied with whatever you destroyed to open the portal, and the possibility of trapping more innocents inside.

Spirit Patchwork - Your soul is becoming frayed at the edges and spirits appear to fill the gaps. They take a form appropriate to what your effigy is made of and your aesthetic "theme" if you have one. Small animals, amorphous wisps of light, and minor elementals or constructs are all possible. The spirits are visible part of your effigy body. By temporarily losing an HD, you can forcefully externalize one of them, to make it perform one simple task. You will regain your HD when the spirit returns to your body. Spirits are only partly corporeal and can't die, but if one of them becomes permamently trapped outside of your body, a new one will appear to fill in the gap in d4 weeks.

Malleable Form - This body isn't your real body. Your self image has become hazy and indistinct, since you stopped being flesh. You're no longer tied to a humanoid form. With enough materials and time, you could mold your effigy into almost anything you can imagine. Of course, your body isn't truly yours, and for the change to stick, you will require the Abyss' favour, in the form of Karma Dice.

1KD: Minor, cosmetic modifications

2KD: Slight adjustments without changes to the body plan, like horns or claws

3KD:Significant changes that result in the more-or-less same number of limbs as before, like making your legs into a fin, or your arms into wing.

4KD: Bodyplan overhauls, becoming a quadruped, adding a pair of wings jutting out of your shoulders, or an extra pair of arms.

If you don't have the KD, the Abyss might still let you get away with it, if you pay it with one of your remaining original body parts.

NOTES: If this class seems a bit too murderhoboery, that's because I tried to base it on how they're depicted in Pact, and in Pact murder is the thing they're best at. I did my best not to make too overpowered, what with the "Can heal almost all injuries with commonly available materials and no outside help and can't actually die" bit. I was flirting with the idea of assigning traits and abilities to a bogeyman's component materials, but ultimately decided to leave it to the GM. In Pact, bogeymen usually each have a sort of monster theme going, so in the unlikely case anyone ever wants to use this class, I would encourage them to extrapolate on effigy materials and based the aesthetic on that. Maybe you're a creepy meatpuppet, or a dude made from train parts, hell if I know.

Search This Blog

Fractal Meadows of Reality